Flappers and Philosophers
"I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said, 'I want to be left alone.' There is all the difference." -- Greta Garbo
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And Thee, across the harbor, silver-paced
As though the sun took step of thee, yet left
Some motion ever unspent in thy stride,—
Implicitly thy freedom staying thee!“To Brooklyn Bridge” by Hart Crane, from The Bridge -
Famous pre-Code movie poster by pin-up artist Alberto Vargas.
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Lillian Roth performs “Low Down” from Cecil D. DeMille’s Madam Satan (1930). The piano player is composer Jack King (“Put some pepper in it—papa wants to sneeze!”). The dancer is choreographer/second unit director Eddie Prinz. The lyrics were written by Elsie Janis, who gives us some amazing lines like “I love all the gin that puts the sin in sync-o-pation / I do now-and-then get up a yen for any new sin-sation.”) Classic camp!
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“They don’t think they’re tough or desperate
They know the law always wins
They’ve been shot at before, but they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.
Some day they’ll go down together
And they’ll bury them side by side
To few it’ll be grief, to the law a relief
But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.”
from “The Trail’s End,” a poem written by Bonnie Parker, circa 1933 -
Top: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, circa 1933. Bottom: Their car on display after their deaths near Arcadia, Louisiana, 1934.
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Halloween party thrown by Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst, 1930s. Top: Clark Gable, Carol Lombard, and Hearst. Bottom: Gloria Swanson, Davies, Constance Bennett, and Jean Harlow
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Electricity, from Cecil B. DeMille’s Madam Satan (1930)
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Cliff Edwards (“Ukulele Ike”) with magician Suzy Wandas from the 1935 Technicolor short Starlit Days at the Lido.
